Artie Bergren - Development Intern for OutRight

Nonbinary identities like my own are often disregarded, ignored, or at best, regarded with confusion. Especially in formal spaces. This was not the case at the event ‘Gender Diversity Beyond Binaries’ hosted by UN Women at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on July 15, 2019 - and one of the first times an event was dedicated entirely to trans and non-binary people’s lives at the forum. This intentional inclusion of nonbinary folks in formal spaces is desperately needed. It speaks to nonbinary people like myself on levels that binary people, especially cisgender people, could not begin to understand.

I felt included before the event began. At the door, everyone was offered pronoun stickers - and the options weren’t just ‘he/him/his’, ‘she/her/hers’, and ‘they/them/theirs.’ People who use ‘ze/zir/zem’ pronouns and ‘xe/xir/xem’ pronouns had stickers to choose from too. The seemingly small offering of pronoun stickers to all, was, in fact, no small feat. It ensured that one person’s offering of their pronouns wouldn’t be an oddity like it so often is. And it signified to everyone in the room that people of all genders would not only be respected, but actively included in the conversation.

And that indication did not disappoint. As the conversation about gender diversity around the world ensued, it became abundantly clear that this inclusion wasn’t just an act. Each speaker mentioned nonbinary and gender diverse people explicitly multiple times. Gender equality, a conversation which usually centers around cis-women, was discussed in a way that acknowledged the impact of gender inequality on nonbinary and gender diverse people, and invited us to take part. Read more via OutRight International

 Gender Diversity Beyond Binaries

15 Jul 2019 - 	An interactive dialogue among Member States, UN entities and civil society on the current state of LGBTQI+ rights globally.